Clarifying objectives

The knowledge and working methods offered in this element can be used by researchers as they see fit for the objectives below:

• Working jointly with all members of the partnership to formulate different types of objectives of the study, namely knowledge objectives, change objectives, professionalisation objectives and/or design objectives
• Ensuring that the formulated objectives are supported by all stakeholders and that they feel joint ownership of them

Why it is important to work with all participants of a partnership jointly to achieve the objectives of the study

A good research design is purposeful. That means it is clear:

• what knowledge needs to be developed
• what changes are sought, both during and after the research project
• what stakeholders (including the researcher himself) will learn during and after the study
• what concrete ’things’ are going to be designed, e.g. an app, a checklist, a protocol or a tool

Finding out whether the design is purposeful can only be done by collectively exploring with practitioners what is needed in terms of development of knowledge, change, learning and products.

Required preliminary work by project leader and process manager

Within CAYR, with regard to objectives, a concept is used that may be new to participants. These are ’the four objectives of practice-based research’ (Andriessen, 2019). This concept is explained below. It is important for the project leader and process manager to read up on this before working on the objectives with all participants of the partnership. It may also be important to provide the other participants with this information before they actually start collectively working on the objectives.

The four types of objectives of practice-based research

Within CAYR, there are four types of objectives that can be pursued through practice-based research:  

Knowledge objective

The objective of any research project is to develop new knowledge. Within CAYR, the following is understood as new knowledge: actual, externally verified ‘content’ that has been arranged and made explicit in a logical way (Markauskaite & Goodyear, 2017).

Change objective

Conducting a survey can be a powerful tool for change (Van Lieshout, Jacobs, & Cardiff, 2017). Research then involves interventions in practice to bring about change. The change objective may involve changes at the individual level (behavioural changes) on the one hand and changes at the collective level (systemic changes) on the other. The latter are changes in the system of which the practice issue forms part, e.g. changes in policy, culture, processes, funding, procedures, ways of working, etc.

Design objective

Often, practice-based research also creates something: a manual, protocol, checklist, tool, training course or new treatment method.

Professionalisation objective

Conducting research is always instructive, in any case for the researcher. So professionalisation always plays a role. However, the aim of getting people to learn something can also be an explicit objective in a study. Research then acts as a didactic tool (Markauskaite & Goodyear, 2017). The objective is for individuals to learn something during the study by involving them in the research project. These can be healthcare professionals, clients, management, but also students. In fact, it could be anyone involved in a practice issue.

Traditionally, we commonly separate research from implementation: research first, then disseminate, implement and scale up. This strict separation may hamper the effective transfer of research into practice. Successful implementation may require activities that promote successful impact already during the research process. It is therefore wise to start thinking about the impact of the research project while creating a research design.

Objectives and impact 

According to Morrow, Goreham, & Ross (2017), research can impact practice in four ways:

• through the direct use of knowledge;
• through the direct use of research products;
• through an impact on individuals;
• through an impact on groups/organisations.

We can translate these four forms of impact into the ‘four types of objectives of practice-based research’ described above.

There is a lot to be said for not focusing a practice-based research project only on the knowledge objective. According to Vermaak (2009), change, professionalisation and research are mutually reinforcing aspects. CAYR adds that design as an activity also has a lot of synergy with the other objectives.

The four objectives of practice-based research are, of course, not separate. The application of knowledge can lead to learning and change. The same goes for implementing products. Learning is necessary for systemic changes, and systemic changes can give rise to learning, and so on.

Supporting questions to set objectives

It is important to collectively consider the objectives to be achieved in a research project. You can do so by collectively considering the following four questions:

1. What do we want to discover in the study? Formulate the answer starting with ‘insight into …’.
2. What do we want to improve or change in organisations/a culture/a system? Formulate the answer by starting with ‘within [name of organisation], there is a greater/lesser focus on … /a working method for … /room for …’
3. What do we want to have produced in the end, concretely? Formulate the answer by starting with: ‘A (tool, training course, checklist, procedure, instrument, methodology, and so on) … to …’.
4. What should we and others have learned at the end of the study? Formulate the answer by starting with: ‘… have learned to …/ have a different attitude towards …/ and so on’.

At the same time, setting more targets makes a research project more ambitious; each time you have to ask yourselves how realistic this is, given the preconditions. In fact, prioritising is always necessary. Three questions are important in doing so:

1. Who has what responsibility in achieving the objectives?
2. What is feasible within the study?
3. Where does the research project start and where does it stop?

Re. 1. This question is about the mutual division of roles, duties and tasks within the team. Who does the research, who is responsible for product development, who for professionalisation and who for effectuating change? Traditionally, the researcher is limited to research, but there are also designs in which the researcher acts as a coach to practitioners in doing research (in action research) or acts as an interventionist realising change (in design-oriented research).

Re. 2. This question is about preconditions and the extent to which there is room in the research project to produce things, have people learn something and make change interventions.

Re. 3. This question is about where research ends. The four objectives of practice-based research are, of course, not separate. The application of knowledge can lead to learning and change. The same goes for implementing products. Learning is necessary for systemic changes, and systemic changes can give rise to learning, and so on.

Additional working methods

More tools for collectively setting objectives

The ‘CAYR as a complete 10-step process’ manual provides is a complete workshop called ‘Exploring the objectives’ on page 29. This workshop combines different working methods to jointly arrive at objectives for the research project with a project group. The workshop is a half-day session and can be organised either online or on-site. The description of this workshop can give project leaders and process managers more insight into how the above-mentioned working methods and tools can be used (whether combined or not) and can serve as inspiration for how meetings can be organised from the basic principles of CAYR.